With his latest Synod assembly, the pope has taken another step in reforming the Church. But are all the bishops with him?

The Synod assembly is nearing its end. (Photo by M.Migliorato/CPP/Ciric)

The XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment comes to end this weekend and, no matter what the final document contains, one can already begin to draw up a balance sheet of what has emerged over its 25 days of meetings and events.

The critics of Pope Francis were already skeptical before the Oct. 3-28 gathering at the Vatican even started. And as the sessions unfolded over the course of these past few weeks, they have dismissed much of the deliberations as amounting to little more than a farce.

Some of them have accused the pope — who is the president of the Synod — and his top aides in the Synod’s general secretariat of “rigging” the assembly on youth, just as they denounced Francis and his supporters for “fixing” the procedures and outcome of the other two assemblies (on marriage and the family) that have taken place in his pontificate.

Even Francis loyalists like India’s Cardinal Oswald Gracias, a member of the pope’s C9 council of advisors, have raised questions over the process that’s been followed — or ignored — in this latest Synod assembly. (We’ll get to that in a moment.)

But, as was argued here last week, the gathering has been “but a single step on a much longer and transformative journey,” marking “yet another necessary juncture on the road towards radically reforming structures of ecclesial governance and effecting a ‘conversion’ of the papacy itself.”

So, what are the early results of this latest episcopal summit in Rome?

'Synodality' still widely misunderstood

The first thing that must be noted is that Pope Francis still has a steep challenge in clearing up the considerable confusion many Catholics have about the exact nature of the Synod of Bishops and the process of synodality he is trying to make a constitutive part of the Church’s very constitution.

Some of his critics have warned that the pope is trying to turn the Roman Church’s decision-making process into something similar to the way the Anglican Communion operates.

They fear he is moving to “protestantize” Catholicism. But this is based on their ignorance of the history and true nature of synodality, which reaches back to early days of the Church.

Francis’ idea of the synod process is rooted in that history and can be seen more in the Orthodox churches, some of which have Synods that include in the input and even authority of the lay people as voting members.

The critics are not alone.

Even those Catholics who are committed to synodality, including clergy and laity alike, have a faulty understanding of what this actually means.

For example, too many people — even in the Synod’s secretariat — continue to erroneously refer to “the synod on youth” or “the synod on the family,” as if the synod were merely a particular gathering.

No. There is only one Synod of Bishops in the Roman Church. It is a permanent institution that the Bishop of Rome, whenever he desires, calls into session (or convenes in an assembly).

A portion of the world’s bishops are elected by their peers or appointed by the pope to attend such assemblies, which the pope (at least up to now) convenes for a determined period of time to discuss and advise him on a specific agenda.

This is not nitpicking over semantics. Rather, it gets to the very heart of what the Synod actually is.

No one speaks of a nation’s legislative body by saying there’s going to be a parliament or a congress next week, but rather a session of parliament or a session of congress. That’s because these are permanent institutions that are called into session at designated times.

The Synod of Bishops, when not gathered in assembly, is in a sort of recess. But it does not cease to exist.

That is clear by the fact that between assemblies an “ordinary council” of bishops continues to meet under the direction of the general secretariat, the office in Rome that coordinates, plans and guides the work of the Synod under the direction of its president, the pope.

Until bishops and all Catholics get the language right, it will be all the more difficult to change the Roman Church’s collective mentality and understanding of what the Synod of Bishops actually is.

In this regard, it would be helpful for Catholics to read the latest document issued by the International Theological Commission (ITC) —“Synodality in the Life and the Mission of the Church.”

Thankfully the text, originally in Italian, is finally available in numerous translations, including English.

Much of it forms the basis and explains the rationale behind Episcopalis communio, the apostolic constitution Pope Francis recently issued to revamp and reform the working of the Synod of Bishops.

It is unfortunate that the pope has not made this mandatory reading for all the Church’s leaders.

Was this Synod assembly 'rigged'?

Perhaps that is why Francis — or the Synod’s general secretariat — decided to insert key and lengthy sections on synodality in the current assembly’s final document, despite the fact that many bishops claim there was never any real discussion on this issue these past weeks.

This has led the pope’s critics, like veteran Vatican writer Sandro Magister, to suggest that the Synod is once again being rigged to the predetermined outcome that Francis desires.

“The two synods (sic.) on the family of 2014 and 2015 were among the most deliberately steered in history,” said Magister, noting that this provoked protests by some bishops.

He doesn’t go quite as far as making that same claim about this 2018 assembly on youth, but he certainly hints at it.

“By statute, a pope never intervenes in the drafting of the final document, which instead must be ‘offered’ to him at the end of the synod,” writes Magister. “But this time Francis has bent the rules, in order to follow the composition of the text as closely as possible,” he asserts.

That’s not exactly correct. Take a look at article 17 in Episcopalis communio:

“For the redaction of the final document, a special commission is set up, consisting of the relator general, who chairs the commission, the general secretary, the special secretary and some members elected by the Synod assembly taking due account of the various regions, as well as others appointed by the Roman Pontiff” (emphasis added).

Surely, the Roman Pontiff can even “appoint” himself to be part of any process that takes place in an assembly. He is, after all, the Synod’s president.

But, still, the impression of the pope “bending the rules” lends to mistrust. It is not helpful to Francis when even one of his most trusted advisors start questioning his alleged involvement in inserting things in the final document.

“There was some resistance when it was publicized because this document has so much on synodality when we really haven’t discussed it, which is true,” said Cardinal Oswald Gracias, who is a member of the document’s drafting committee.

He agreed that it would only feed conspiracies of a rigged assembly, but offered a suggestion as to why the pope felt so strongly about adding sections on synodality.

“The Holy Father has been speaking about synodality, about walking together, the Church walking together. That’s what he’s been saying since the last synod,” the cardinal said. But he was obviously flummoxed by the imposed changes to his committee’s document.

The Synod’s general secretariat continues to drop the ball

Another thing that has been revealed over the weeks the Synod has been in session is that the general secretariat has an uncanny aptitude for creating confusion and doubt about the Synod process.

First of all, it is extremely troubling and absolutely irresponsible of the secretariat that the “instruction” on the newly devised procedures that are to be followed during a Synod assembly exist only in Italian.

There are other criticisms that can be made of the text, such as its lack of detail or the wide and arbitrary authority it gives to the Synod’s secretary general and his staff.

But the real scandal — in the sense of being a stumbling block — is that the instruction was issued only two days before the current assembly on youth was convened. And in all these weeks since then, it continues to exist officially only in Italian!

Just as troubling has been the writing of the assembly’s final document (which is to be voted on Saturday).

It is a 54-page document that exists in one language only. You guessed it — Italian. How in the world are those who do not know this language supposed to responsibly critique, offer amendments or vote on something they cannot understand?

Offering a simultaneous audio translation as the text is read out in the Synod Hall is an inadequate response and an insult to the non-Italian speaking members at the assembly.

The Synod of Bishops, like the entire Church, is made up of people of all nations, races and languages.

A better effort must be made to allow them to participate in the synodal process and the life of the Church by means of communication in languages understood by the greatest number — if not all — of them.

Bishops still too cautious

Pope Francis has radically changed the dynamic of these Synod assemblies by urging the bishops and other participants to speak boldly and not be afraid to bring to the floor any of their concerns, no matter how controversial they may be.

But the bishops, at least, have been too timid to take up the pope’s request. Reaction to a suggestion to consider the ordination of married men, which Auxiliary Bishop Jean Kockerols of Brussels made, highlights the problem.

“I am disappointed by the lack of reaction,” Kockerols said.

“Numerous bishops sought me out during coffee breaks, saying ‘you are right, we should be heading in that direction,’ but I notice the subject was never looked into in the working groups,” he said.

Role of women beginning to gain traction

Although there seemed to be considerable discussion about giving women a greater role in Church decision-making procedures, the topic was evidently mentioned only briefly and tepidly in the draft of the final document.

Yet, the issue is not going away.

Several heads of male religious orders, a number of religious sisters and certainly the youth delegates have publicly questioned the logic of continuing to keep women virtually on the sidelines of the Church’s authority structure.

Many of them noted that if non-ordained religious brothers could be allowed to vote in a Synod assembly, then non-ordained women religious superiors should be given a vote as well.

“We must face up to the often uncomfortable and impatient questions of young people about equal rights for women also in the Church,” said German Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

“And for the sake of our own credibility, we must involve women at all levels of the Church, from the parish to the levels of the diocese, the Bishops’ Conference and also in the Vatican itself considerably more in leadership tasks,” he told reporters at one of the daily briefings.

Marx, who is also a member of the pope’s C9 council of advisors, said: “The impression that the Church, when it comes to power, is ultimately a male Church must be overcome in the universal Church and also here in the Vatican. Otherwise the young women will not find any real opportunity for formation with us.”

Next steps of the journey

It is apparent to just about everyone that there was too much meat on the fire at this Synod assembly. But it has opened, perhaps just a little, a forum of discussion between the Church’s leaders and young people.

It will be important to find ways at the local level — in dioceses, parishes and other places where the Church is and seeks to be — to replicate and enhance the experience of these past few weeks in Rome.

This period of “reception” or implementation of the aims of the Synod assembly will be crucial. Perhaps the final document will offer some helpful suggestions for achieving that.

World Youth Day next January in Panama will be the first proving ground. Yet that, too, will only be a tiny step on the longer and more difficult journey towards a more synodal Church.

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